Tropical Storm Yagi was blowing over the coastal waters of Vinzons town in Camarines Norte province, southeast of Manila, on Monday with sustained winds of up to 75kmh and gusts of up to 90kmh, according to the weather bureau.
The storm, locally called Enteng, was moving northwestward at 10kmh near the eastern coast of the main northern region of Luzon, where the weather bureau warned of possible flash floods and landslides in mountainous provinces.
Along the crowded banks of the Marikina River in the eastern fringes of the capital, a siren was sounded in the morning to warn thousands of residents to brace for evacuation in case the river water continues to rise and overflow due to heavy rains.
In Northern Samar province, coast guard personnel used a rope to evacuate 40 villagers on Sunday in two villages that were engulfed in waist-high floods, the coast guard said.
Sea travel was temporarily halted in several ports affected by the storm, stranding about 2,400 ferry passengers and cargo workers, and nearly two dozen domestic flights were suspended due to the stormy weather.
About 20 typhoons and storms batter the Philippines each year. The archipelago lies in the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a region along most of the Pacific Ocean rim where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, making the Southeast Asian nation one of the world’s most disaster-prone.
In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest recorded tropical cyclones in the world, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened entire villages, swept ships inland and displaced more than 5 million people in the central Philippines.